A Woodlot Solution that fits

Compromise can leave people feeling cheated, or people feeling the best decision has been made.

We believe the best decision has been made by the University of New Brunswick board of governors over the controversial issue of the use and future of the UNB Woodlot.

Last week, the board approved a recommendation from the Creighton Conservation Forest advisory committee to keep and protect half of the woodlot for the exclusive use of teaching, undergraduate research and recreation.

It took years to come to this point, but it was a thorough and careful decision, said Rick Cunjak, the advisory committee’s chair.

The 1,537 hectares of land, from the Trans-Canada Highway near New Maryland to the Grant Harvey Centre, was an endowment from King George III in 1800. The gift came with strings — it could not be sold.

Alas, it could be leased, and that’s what UNB has been doing for several years — leasing parcels of land to companies that now have stores in the Corbett Centre at the top of Regent Street.

That development decision made a lot of people angry — including past and current UNB students, and environmentalists who worried about the bog, the watershed, the beavers and the water supply of Fredericton.

Dozens and dozens of letters to the editor were written, almost every one of them condemning UNB for the decision to develop part of the woodlot.

But now the issue is settled, and getting half of something is better than getting less than half, or nothing.

Environmentalism, practicality and necessity clash every day in our lives.

You might feel taking your car out in -20 temperatures is a terrible waste of fuel and harmful to the atmosphere, but walking or waiting for the bus in such weather might prove just too painful.

Rising costs, crumbling infrastructure, increasing demands and expectations and uncertain government funding have put all public universities on alert. How do you stretch the dollars to be all things to all people? That’s why the idea of leasing land came about — practicality and necessity.

But as we said, it was not without criticism.

“(The end result) is fairly significant considering there was a lot of controversy and upset by a variety of people on campus and off campus when the development at the current Corbett Centre started and what that meant,” said Prof. Cunjak.

“I think it’s (the process) a nice example of a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds and interests coming together and realizing, what I believed to be is a very reasonable compromise and a very good solution.”

We like the fact that there is still a vast and varied greenspace at the top of the hill for students, teachers, researchers and recreationalists to enjoy and learn from.

All things considered — the size of the acreage, the financial pressures of the university, the environmental issues and the need for protection — we believe this balanced approach is the very best the advisory committee could have come up with.

~ The Daily Gleaner Editorial

28 Jan 2013